For the month of March, we are sharing stories of what is like to be a female athlete. In the below article, contributor Megan brings humorously brings to light ways to stay safe while rural running. If you would like to share your story for women’s history month, please send it to lexi@lifelongendurance.com

Hey there! Megan, again. For those who don’t know me, I’m an animal loving, writing, reading, runner, who has recently relocated from Chicago, IL, with a 6-month pit stop in Dallas, to Middle-of-Nowhere East Texas. (That alliteration tho!)

Not only did I move in the middle of summer, with a fall marathon planned, (Why? I honestly couldn’t tell you why I thought that was a good idea) but I had to get used to marathon training on my own, in a non pedestrian-friendly city. Then, immediately after I started getting used to that, the culture changed IMMENSELY when I moved from Dallas to the Longview area.Now, I just moved here to a town just north of Longview, and Longview is pretty small. You know that running isn’t exactly a popular thing when you open up Strava and there aren’t any recorded segments for tens and tens of miles. I never see anyone running, a majority of my neighborhood’s residents are either farmers, much older folks, or leave super early in the morning before the sun gets up to drive to their day jobs in a neighboring city. There are sometimes a few neighborhood kids that ride around on their mountain bikes, but otherwise it could be pretty safe to say that no one in my town runs on purpose. So, last week, I was feeling a little stressed from my job (I work in software testing and design) so I decided to lace up the ol’ beat up Nike’s and give my new ‘hood a roll. I didn’t put my headphones in, mainly because I couldn’t find them, but also because I knew that my neighborhood is still very new to me, so I wanted to ‘keep my wits about me’. I tried playing music off my phone that was shoved into one of my pockets, but quickly got annoyed by that, and just kind of turned it off to see what would happen. There was enough that was interesting to look at that an auditory distraction wasn’t super needed, thankfully. But what I ran into was super interesting. Now, imagine me. I’ve been living in cities for the majority of my young adult life. From when I moved to NYC at 15/16, to Chicago at 19, and Dallas at 23. I’m very used to a particular kind of danger. I’m used to homeless people running after me, I’m used to drivers nearly running me over when I have a green cross-sign, I’m used to watching people make drug deals in the middle of the night when I would bike-commute home from a night shift.But this, was a much different kind of danger than I was used to. But, let me back up a little bit to before my run, and I was about to step out the door.“What you’re not going to bring a gun with you?” said my boyfriend’s mom, Trina. I was pretty taken aback by the question, since I’d never really had to remember to bring anything with me on my runs other than pepper spray.“What? Why?” I asked.“Because! That’s what people do here! You don’t know the area yet.” She chirped.“I’ll only stick to the main road, I’ll be fine.” I insisted.Fast forward to the run.Someone had lit a “burn pile” in their front yard that blocked off the main road where I wanted to run, so instead of running through it and inhaling the smoke, I decided to change my route (don’t do that and not tell anyone like I did.) So, I turn around and head down a stretch that I knew would eventually turn into a big circle back to my property. It was gorgeous for the first few stretches. I saw a couple of gorgeous and friendly horses, some goats, some pigs, beautiful landscapes that looked like they had been shot on a really nice camera, and I was loving it! Every second!Until I saw the sheep.Sheep? What’s so dangerous about sheep? Oh, nothing about the sheep themselves...but their protectors? Now that’s a different story.The sheepdogs saw me coming around the bend and started barking. That’s fine, they’re just doing their job. I remember thinking to myself. I even took out my phone and did a quick Instagram video of them because there were SO many sheep, it was so cool to me.While I was blissfully submerged in my world of wonder, one GIANT ASS Anatolian Shepard dog hauled his butt over the wire fence and came up right beside me, without me even knowing he was there, until he was less then three feet from me. On all fours his head was up to my ribcage, and I’m not super short, I’m 5’6! And, man, if you could have only seen the look on this dog’s face. He was straight. Pissed.

He growled, but didn’t show any immediate defensive stature. So I kept my eyes down to show that I wasn’t a threat, lifted my hand towards him so that he could sniff it, and I slowly backed away, not too fast that he would want to chase me, but enough that he got the idea that I was heading back from whence I came.I went back pretty slow, just incase he decided to follow me, and then decided to pick my pace back up to where I was (9:30ish, not bad!). On the way back, it started to get dark super quickly, and my phone was losing battery. So I picked up my pace even more (9:00), not wanting to be in the pitch dark, alone, with no way to contact anyone (don’t do that, don’t be like me). So, all in all, here’s what I’ve learned so far in terms of Rural Running Tips:

1. Always tell someone your route when you go out running and tell them if it changes.

2. Always make sure your phone is fully charged.

3. Bring pepper spray, a stun gun, or an air horn to deter loose, aggressive animals. (Or whatever you feel comfortable bringing that’s legal in your area)

4. Stick to main roads if you can.

5. Run with a headlamp and luminescent gear if you run in the dark.If you can think of other stuff you’d want me to try, let me know!

Until next time,

Megan (the Flash) Russell